


None So Blind

by LoneWulffe



Category: Supergirl (TV 2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Alternate Universe - Human, F/M, Fluff, Humor, KaramelValenteen2020, Light Angst, Minor Original Character(s)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-14
Updated: 2020-02-14
Packaged: 2021-02-22 15:15:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 9,966
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22718044
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/LoneWulffe/pseuds/LoneWulffe
Summary: Kara gets a mysterious Valentine, and Mike starts behaving strangely after she gets him to help her figure out who sent it.There is no reason to think these two things are in any way remotely connected.
Relationships: Kara Danvers/Mon-El
Comments: 14
Kudos: 66





	None So Blind

**Author's Note:**

> Happy Day of the Valenteen, my Karamel family! If you were hoping for a new chapter of PiaD, I sincerely apologise; I was roped into writing a Valentine's Day fic and here we are. However, I promise I'll do my best to deliver a new chapter before the end of the month so please be patient with me just a little longer and I hope you enjoy this offering in the meantime!
> 
> The title comes from that old saying, "There are none so blind as those who will not see."

> “ _Never sign a Valentine with your own name.” – Charles Dickens, The Pickwick Papers_

* * *

Kara Danvers had a problem and that problem went by the name of Mike Matthews.

An out-of-the-blue transfer in the middle of sophomore year, Mike Matthews had almost immediately made waves throughout National City High for a wide variety of reasons. First and foremost, the fact that he was the only son of Larson and Rhea Matthews and therefore heir to the multi-million-dollar business empire that was Daxam Industries took less than a day to become widespread knowledge in the school.

Girls – especially those who had known reputations for being budding gold-diggers – had immediately taken notice and started openly plotting how they could get their hooks into him.

It didn't help that he was also a total heartthrob with a smile that could quite possibly turn even the grumpiest and most feral of cats into giant purring bundles of fur.

At first and much to her embarrassment when she looked back later, she had written him off completely without a second thought. With those looks and that kind of money to his name, there was no way he wasn't a spoilt jerk whose idea of a hobby was breaking the heart of every girl he could trick into believing he genuinely had feelings for her. He was going to host wild parties full of underage drinking, sex and possibly even drugs every single weekend and earn for himself the status of frat boy of the universe. Plus, the timing of his transfer seemed completely suspicious and screamed of his parents covering up some sordid thing he'd done in his old school to get himself expelled.

In other words, he was going to be nothing but trouble and it was in her best interest to steer clear of him every chance she got.

Except Mike very quickly proved that was not the case. At all.

For starters, it turned out that the reason Mike had transferred at such an odd time was because his grandfather Baldwin had had a health scare in the form of a heart attack. Consequently, the Matthews family had moved to National City so that they could give him the best care possible and be close to him at the same time. As Mike was apparently very close to his grandfather, all of his initial weekends had been spent not hosting wild debauched parties at his appropriately large house but rather visiting said grandfather in the hospital. (This absence of parties continued even after Baldwin Matthews had finally gotten discharged, proving at long last and without a doubt that Mike really was Not That Kind of Guy.)

This information had not been acquired via stalking or any other similarly creepy methods, Kara would be quick to make clear if anyone tried to imply that she had developed a borderline obsessive interest in Mike's life. (Not that anyone _had_ , but still.) No, she had in fact learned this through a series of events that had begun with Mike rescuing her best friend Winn from a bunch of jerk jocks who had decided to pick on him while none of them were around to have his back. (Kara's cousin Alex gave every last one of the bullies a good trashing when she found out about it later but that was neither here nor there.) After that, the two guys had become fast friends – one could even say they acted like blood brothers – and the truth about Mike's circumstances had eventually been revealed over a gaming session at Winn's house.

Other things about Mike Matthews had also gotten revealed over time as he slowly but surely integrated himself into their little group of friends via Winn such as his hobbies and favourite television shows. Somewhere in that long list included his character which proved to be contrary to what she had unfairly thought of him in almost every way possible. He was genuinely nice, not at all spoilt, did not in fact want to seduce half the school, took his studies seriously, had a great sense of humour... To top things off, he had gotten himself a spot as a photographer for the school paper on his own merit, proving that he did not believe his name or money should give him any kind of an unfair advantage even in something as simple as this.

As her other best friend Eve who also happened to be Winn's girlfriend put it – out of Winn's earshot, of course, because she didn't actually want him to get heartbroken and think she was going to dump him for the brother he'd always wanted –, “As far as dream boyfriend material goes, he might as well be the poster boy for the term.”

But no, neither Mike nor the fact that he was nothing like what she first imagined him to be was actually the problem. (If anybody asked, she had in fact admitted she'd harboured such an uncharitable opinion of him to his face not too long after Winn had brought him into their gang, apologised profusely for it and gotten his somewhat bemused forgiveness in return.)

The real problem was that one fine average school day while she was in Spanish class with him, she had looked over at him as he was busy taking notes and realised with a start that she kind of sort of maybe was completely head over heels in love with him.

To say that her brain had shut down on her right then and there would have been an understatement, and it remained a mystery to her how she had managed to make it through the rest of the class without having some kind of a meltdown.

While Kara was usually the type to face a problem head-on and keep going at it until it got solved, this particular Mike-shaped problem had turned out to be the exception to the rule. Instead, her first instinct had been to put as much distance between them as possible and maintain said distance until they graduated and she never had to see him again.

However, that had also been the point where she had realised just how impossible that was for a wide variety of reasons.

For one, National City High was not a small school but it was by no means all that large either so unless she could find a way to get transferred – preferably to another state –, she had no choice but to stay right here. Then there was the fact that they shared the same group of friends and unless she was willing to cut all of them out of her life, she was going to have to keep seeing him outside of school _and_ pretend nothing was amiss. To further complicate matters, they worked together on the school paper and were frequently paired up because, as their teacher Ms Grant put it, “I prefer my most competent students combining forces so I can be sure at least _one_ part of my precious paper doesn't get royally screwed up beyond all hope of salvation.”

In other words, she was stuck.

After trying and failing to figure out a solution to her dilemma, she had finally admitted defeat and confessed her feelings... to Eve.

As it turned out, Eve had already known. And so had Alex. Which meant that even if she had not figured it out on her own, Sam would have eventually been enlightened simply by virtue of being Alex's girlfriend. In fact, the only ones in their gang who hadn't known were Winn and of course Mike himself, prompting a three-piece exasperated chorus of “ _Boys_ ”.

Kara had understandably been pissed to find out that the three girls had even betted on how long it would take for her to realise she liked Mike as more than a friend. (Eve had won, naturally.)

Unfortunately, going to Eve for help had only compounded Kara's problems as the only piece of advice that had been given to her boiled down to simply telling Mike how she felt. Because apparently it didn't matter that this could not only make things awkward between them but potentially destroy their entire group's well-oiled dynamic forever. No, the only thing that mattered was the possibility of, in Eve's words, “an epic romance that will be the talk of National City High for years.”

But the unwanted advice had been nothing to the open 'discussions' that had followed on how to orchestrate the perfect confession scenario.

It had taken Kara literally begging on her knees and promising that she would eventually tell Mike how she really felt about him if they would just stay out of it and let her do it on her own time.

One week passed. Then another. And another.

Every single time she had come close to working up the courage, she had chickened out and fed herself every excuse in the universe not to go through with it.

In the end, Eve had put her foot down.

“You have until the end of February,” she had told Kara with an expression one was more likely to see on the statues of malevolent demonic figures than benign best friends. “Or else the three of us are stuffing the both of you in the janitor's closet and you're not getting out until at least _one_ round of tonsil hockey has happened.”

With a threat like that looming over her head, Kara had unsurprisingly felt the pressure to finally just get it over with for better or worse.

Then the student body had organised a Valentine's Day event that revolved around letting everyone send a Valentine to the person they liked along with whatever personalised message they wanted provided it didn't cross any lines.

_This is it_ , she had told herself. _This is my ticket out of this. I'll just send him one that says I like him and if he says he doesn't feel that way I can just play it off as a friendship Valentine or something. That way, there won't be any awkwardness between us afterwards even if I'll still feel like someone fed my heart into a meat grinder. Problem solved._

It had been, by all accounts, a relatively solid plan.

Right up to the point she had found out that Mike had been roped into helping with the event... and put in charge of collecting the Valentine submissions.

Needless to say, Kara had abandoned her plan post-haste and instead started to consider fleeing to Canada before Eve could enact any of her demented schemes.

* * *

Unbeknownst to her, another plan had already been hatched and set in motion...

* * *

“Kara Danvers?”

At the sound of her name, Kara turned to find a student she didn't recognise looking at her with a slightly crumpled piece of paper held in his hand and a small cardboard box cradled in his other arm. Judging by the ridiculous pair of cardboard wings he had strapped to his back, he was one of the juniors serving as a 'cupid' deliveryman for the school's Valentine's event. “Um, yes, that's me.”

“Great.” Without wasting another second, he put the paper away and reached into his box for a heart-shaped card... that he then shoved into Kara's hands. “This is for you.”

“Wh-” Stunned, she nearly dropped the Valentine – _her_ Valentine, which _what_?! – and nearly crushed it in her desperation to prevent it from falling to the ground. “W-Wait!” she called out desperately but the junior had already run off to find the next name on his list.

Leaving her standing dumbstruck in the hallway holding a folded piece of bright red construction paper as if it was a ticking bomb.

She stared at it as if it was seconds way from blowing up in her face.

Because it lacked eyes and was not a living creature of any kind in the first place, the Valentine did not stare back and simply continued to sit innocently in her hands.

Who could have possibly sent her a Valentine? The answer of course lay inside and all she had to do to get it was open it... but still she hesitated.

It was too much to hope for, and yet a part of her dearly wished that the name inside would be Mike's.

Heart hammering away in her chest, she held her breath and slowly opened the card.

The name on the card was not Mike's.

In fact, there was no name at all.

Instead, there was a string of seemingly random letters that looked like the kind of gibberish a malfunctioning computer would produce in its death throes.

Trepidation immediately turned into confusion.

Had someone decided to play a prank on her? If so, they had certainly missed the mark because she was feeling more lost than hurt or offended. Or was it a genuine Valentine but something had gone wrong somehow along the way? There really was no way to tell.

...Unless, of course, she asked someone who might be able to shed some light on this mystery.

The very same person who she had hoped – and maybe still did even though she knew it was ridiculous – was the one who had sent it in the first place.

Kara chewed her lip as she considered her situation as well as options. On one hand, she couldn't deny that it was really nice to know that someone out there like-liked her enough to send her a Valentine and she was really curious about their identity. On the other hand, it didn't change the fact that she herself like-liked Mike and still kind of really, really wanted to find out if they could actually be anything more than friends.

Then a very crazy idea popped into her head all of a sudden that could solve all her problems in one fell swoop:

Find Mike and ask him if he knew anything about this cryptic Valentine.

Doing this would not only let her identify her secret admirer but also see his reaction to her expressing such a vested interest in obtaining this information. If he seemed the slightest bit jealous, then she would know that she did in fact have a chance and try confessing to him later in the day. If not, then she would take it as a sign that she should give up and work on fixing her broken heart in private so that their friendship and the stability of their group wouldn't be compromised.

All in all, it seemed like a win-win situation to her.

Mind made up, she marched purposefully down the hallway in search of her target. If she remembered his schedule correctly – and she really wanted to believe that she only knew it so well because they were such good friends and not because she might actually be stalking him in a way –, he should be finishing his Introduction to Business class right about now.

Just as she had expected, she found him standing outside an emptying classroom although he failed to notice her approach as all his attention was focused on stuffing what looked like a hundred Valentine cards into his backpack.

Even though she knew that most of the girls who had sent those cards were only interested in his money and he had even told her that all the attention made him uncomfortable, the sight still made her heart clench.

In a weird way, it just made her steel her resolve to stick to her plan.

“Hey.” The smile that curved her lips when he looked up and smiled back at the sound of her voice was entirely involuntary, as was the little skip her heart did. “I see someone's still wildly popular around here.”

“Har har. Very funny.” He finally succeeded and slung his now bulging backpack over his shoulder. “Please tell me you didn't track me down just to make fun of me about this.”

“As much as I'm enjoying this, I'm going to have to say no.” _Please let this work_ , she prayed silently as she slowly pulled her own card out from its hiding place in her Calculus textbook. “I, um... I got this just now.”

To her quiet dismay, all she could read on his face as his eyes took in the sight of the Valentine was his trademark teasing grin. “Oh hey, looks like I'm not the only one around here who's got fans.”

“Y-Yeah, well...” she stammered as she tried to figure out a way to salvage her plan, “I need your help. Can you tell me who sent it?”

Almost immediately, his grin vanished and he just stared at her in surprise. “Oh. Uh. Why? I mean, what's wrong? Shouldn't... Shouldn't there be a name inside already? And now that I think about it, I don't remember getting any request to send you one of those...”

“That's the thing: There's no name. There's not even a proper message inside – just a lot of random letters.” She paused as the last thing he'd said sank in. “Wait, what do you mean you didn't get a request? This looks exactly like... like well, one of the gazillion cards you _just_ stuffed inside your backpack.”

“I mean, yeah, but...” he trailed off as he took the card from her and inspected it. “This definitely looks like one of the cards we made for our Valentine's event but... I mean, we had a lot of extras left over after we'd processed all the requests so it's possible someone took one of those to use and... slipped your name into the list of recipients somehow...”

She stared at him, flabbergasted. “Are you seriously telling me someone went through all that trouble just to send me an anonymous Valentine? _Me?_ ”

His head snapped up to stare at her incredulously. “What's that supposed to mean?”

The intensity of his gaze made her feel incredibly self-conscious and she broke eye contact to stare at her feet. If she didn't know better, she would've thought that he was... mad at her. “W-Well, I'm just saying... It's _me_ we're talking about. I'm not exactly... you know.”

“ _Kara._ ” She looked back up and yep, this time she was definitely sure that he was mad at her for some reason. “You're the most amazing girl- no, the most amazing _person_ I know and a Valentine is the _least_ you deserve. Don't sell yourself short.”

Even though she was sure he was only saying it to make her feel better, it didn't stop her cheeks from burning. “Th-Thanks, Mike. B-But, um.” Flustered, she gestured wildly at the card in his hands. Maybe she was getting her hopes up prematurely but if he thought that about her, she stood an actual chance of getting a positive response when she confessed. All she had to do was push this thing just a little harder... “Anyway, yeah. That. If you can't tell me who sent it, maybe you could help me figure it out?”

“Me?” he gawked at her, nothing but pure shock on his face. “Why me?”

“Come on, Mike. We're friends, aren't we?” It felt kind of bad to play this card but she was desperate and if she was being honest with herself, she wanted the excuse to spend some pseudo-alone time with him. At least one of their mutual friends was always present every other time they were together so this was truly a rare opportunity. “I just... I _really_ want to know who sent me this. That's all. Please?”

A hundred different emotions played across his face and for a moment she thought he was going to refuse but then he closed his eyes and hung his head. “Okay, I'll help.”

“Thank you!” Before she could reconsider it, she had thrown her arms around him and given him a slightly awkward bear hug. “You're the best!”

He made a strange noise and patted her back with the hand not holding her card. “Yeah, well, I hope you still feel that way at the end of this.”

It was such a strange statement to make that she forgot to be embarrassed and pulled away with a puzzled frown. “What do you mean by that?”

“Nothing!” he quickly replied with his hands raised. “I'm just saying that there's a chance we won't be able to figure out who it is in the end. O-Or we _do_ and... you know... it's not an answer you like. I just... I don't want you to get hurt.”

“Oh.” She didn't know whether she was supposed to feel touched, exasperated or something else entirely. “I'm a big girl, Mike. I can take care of myself.”

He looked away and raised one of his hands to scratch at his jaw. “I know, I know...” A defeated sigh escaped him and he hung his head again. “All right then, let's get this over with.”

“You don't have to make it sound like such a chore...” she mumbled, feeling a little hurt by his blatant reluctance to help even after he'd promised to do so.

“Sorry,” he muttered back, guilt flashing in those mesmerising blue-grey eyes of his. “I didn't mean to come across like that, I promise. I just... I don't have an excuse but I hope you'll still forgive me.”

Even if she didn't have feelings for him, how was she supposed to stay mad at him when he was giving her that 'kicked puppy trapped in the rain' expression? “You're forgiven.”

The relieved smile he gave her made the butterflies living in her stomach incredibly agitated. “Thanks.”

God, she needed to distract herself right now or she was going to do something really stupid like confess in front of the entire school. “S-So! Um.” She gestured at the card that was still in his hands again. “What do you think about that?”

His expression was unreadable as he followed her gaze and reopened the piece of folded paper. “Well... It's either someone printed out a computer glitch... or it's a coded message.”

“A coded message?” she echoed, stupefied. Why hadn't she thought of that possibility? “Can I see that again?”

With a shrug, he held the card out to her. “Here. I mean, it's yours in the first place after all.”

“Thanks.” Having been presented with this new perspective, she studied the 'gibberish' more intently this time and realised after a couple of minutes that there was a pattern to the seeming randomness. “You're right. If I separate the whole thing into groups of three letters, every third letter in each group is just the alphabet in sequence. So if I remove those...”

“You'll get the real message,” he finished as he watched her pull out her pen and begin scratching the 'worthless' letters out. “...So? What does it say?”

It took her a moment to figure out where the spaces were supposed to go. “...'Go to the Daily Grind Café for the next clue'...?”

“Looks like your secret admirer planned out a treasure hunt for you,” he commented neutrally. “I guess he knows you like puzzles.”

“I guess...” Was that sweet or stalker-y? Kara couldn't quite decide... but that was something she could think about later. “You don't have any more classes for today, right?”

Mike stared at her blankly. “...No...?”

“Well... Can you come along then?” she asked tentatively.

“What?” he squawked in somewhat panicked surprise. “Why?”

“I don't know what exactly is waiting for me there and it would make me feel a lot safer if I had you there with me.” Which was true but also not the complete truth which was that she wanted to spend more time with him and maybe see if she could make him a little jealous or something like that. (Hey, she was a desperate girl in love and all's fair in love and war, right?) “So... please?”

“I don't think whoever sent you that wants to hurt you or did it just to be mean... but...” His shoulders slumped as he let out a heavy sigh. “All right, let's go.”

“Thanks, Mike,” she said sincerely but only got an uncharacteristic grunt in response. He was being weird about all this but she couldn't figure out why. Was he jealous but suppressing it for the same reasons she'd been hesitant to tell him how she felt? It was what she hoped was the case but it didn't seem to quite fit either; after all, shouldn't he be a bit more opposed to everything her secret admirer was doing instead of just being concerned about her in general like the good friend he was? Or was he just that good at hiding it?

She honestly couldn't tell... and there really was only one way to find out. As the saying went, nothing ventured, nothing gained, right?

The one thing she desperately wished for – even more than him returning her feelings – was that however this little mystery ended, their friendship remained intact.

At the moment, that required her to pretend that everything was normal... which was proving to be harder than she imagined.

_Come on, Kara_ , she scolded herself as they walked in silence. _Talk about something. Think! You can usually talk to each other about so many things so this shouldn't be any different! Just pick a topic and get on with it!_

“So are you planning on responding to any of the Valentines you got today?” she heard herself asking in a bright voice that in no way reflected how she had actually felt when she'd seen all those cards in his hands.

He gave her a weird look. “Uh, no? They're probably from the same girls we both know only care about my family fortune.” Then he paused. “Why would you think I'd want to?”

“I-I didn't mean to suggest you'd want to!” _Oh god, backtrack. Make up an excuse. Change the topic. DO SOMETHING, YOU IDIOT._ “I-I'm just saying that, um... maybe there's a sincere one in there somewhere and you might actually like them back?”

_...WHY THE HELL DID I JUST SAY THAT?!_ If a brick wall had been conveniently within reach, Kara would have taken the opportunity to bang her head on it repeatedly.

By that point, he had come to a halt, forcing her to do the same, and when she summoned the courage to actually look at him she found him staring at her as if she'd spontaneously grown a second head. “...Are you... _encouraging_ me to go through all those cards or something like that?”

“O-O-Of course not!” She would've happily made a little bonfire out of those stupid things if not for the suspicions it would raise and the environmental impact of such an action but she wasn't about to admit that out loud. And to him, no less. Time to admit defeat for now and just redirect the conversation before she made an even bigger fool of herself. “Hey, uh, we should probably get a move on. I mean, who knows what's in store for me next, right?”

“Uh, sure.” Strangely, he looked like he was paradoxically both relieved and panicked at the same time but she didn't have the energy to try and decipher that mystery. “Yeah, we should... totally do that.”

They started walking again, but throughout it all she debated the merits of bashing her head against the nearest hard surface once more. _Smooth, Kara, real smooth. And for added points, he probably thinks you're a weirdo with zero romantic interest in him now. Good job._

As such, it was with a cloud of gloom hanging over her that they finally arrived at the Daily Grind Café whereupon they were greeted by a Japanese waitress whose name-tag identified her as Ai.

“Welcome to- oh.” Ai glanced between the two of them with surprise, making Kara wonder if she looked as miserable as she felt. “Pardon me, I forgot my manners for a moment there. Let me try that again.” She cleared her throat delicately and offered them a warm smile. “Welcome to the Daily Grind. Would you like me to show you to a table?”

“No, um... Sorry.” Flustered, Kara awkwardly thrust the current bane of her existence out for Ai to see. “I... uh, I don't know if you know anything about this card but I, um, got this today and the message inside told me to come here so... yeah.”

There was a definite sparkle in Ai's brown eyes as her gaze darted between the card and Kara. “As a matter of fact, you're talking to the right person. Come on in. And...” Her gaze slid over to Mike and was it Kara's imagination or had her smile gotten a little more... prominent? “While I wasn't expecting your friend here, he's welcome to join you.”

“That's very gracious of you,” Mike mumbled with his head ducked, and this time Kara was sure she wasn't imagining how red the tips of his ears looked.

Before Kara could dwell on it any longer, however, the sound of Ai's voice interrupted her thoughts. “By the way, you have me at a disadvantage so if you don't mind me asking, what're your names?”

“Oh. Uh. I'm Kara and he's Mike,” Kara offered as she gestured at herself and the suddenly mute guy walking just behind her.

“Nice to meet you two. Have a seat,” Ai said as she led them to an empty table. “Now, I know you're here for a clue but before I give it to you, I've been asked to let you order whatever you want off our menu. Don't worry about the bill; everything's been settled ahead of time.”

Kara's mind reeled at the 'instructions'. Had her secret admirer essentially asked her to come here so he could treat her to a meal... while still maintaining his anonymity? “Uh... I, um... That's... That's really nice but... it wouldn't feel right. I mean... I don't even know who's doing all this so...”

“Oh, don't you worry about all that. I imagine that whoever it is who sent you here must be able to pay for your meal or they wouldn't have done this in the first place,” Ai replied breezily, wide smile still firmly in place as she encroached into Mike's personal space so much it looked like she was one step away from sitting on his lap. “Don't you think so, Mike?”

He made some kind of affirmative noise as he curled even more into his seat, and Kara didn't have to see his face to tell that he was blushing rather fiercely.

...Was... Was Ai _flirting_ with him? And did he... _like_ it?

That thought was the mental equivalent of a bucket of ice cold water being dumped on her head... while she was already standing waist-deep in a freezing lake. She'd meant to see if she could make him just a little jealous in order to find out if he also had feelings for her but it seemed as if the universe had decided to give her a taste of her own medicine.

“So!” Still the epitome of cheerfulness, Ai pulled out her notepad and prepared to write down their order. “Any idea what you want? We have pretty much every kind of non-alcoholic drink and cake there is so just order away but I can come back later after you've gone through our menu if you prefer to do that.”

As tempted as she was to gorge herself in an effort to cure her misery, Kara refrained from ordering one slice of every cake the café had to offer. “Um, I'm not that hungry so could I just have a sticky bun and a chocolate milkshake please?”

“Coming right up.” Then Ai turned towards Mike who was still staring holes into the table. “And what about you, Mike? What would _you_ like?”

“I'm fine,” came the barely audible reply. “I don't need anything.”

Her jealousy forgotten for the moment, Kara felt a pang of guilt at the idea of him not having anything to eat while she got to have her fill if she so chose at her secret admirer's (literal) expense. “Come on, Mike. I'd like it if you kept me company with at least a drink; it would be a little awkward otherwise. I'll even pay for it since you're here because of me.”

“No.” Somehow that seemed to breathe some life into him because he stopped slouching although his expression made it clear he was still embarrassed almost to the point of being miserable. “I can pay for my own meal. You know that.” He turned to face Ai slowly but didn't quite meet her gaze. “I'll, uh... Make it two chocolate milkshakes then. Please.”

“Coming right up.” Ai patted Mike's shoulder as she passed him on the way to process their order, leaving a decidedly tense and quiet atmosphere behind.

Kara was the first to break. “You know, Eve and I were just talking about this place last week. Their triple chocolate cheesecake special is supposed to be the definition of decadent,” she found herself babbling to fill the silence.

“Oh?” He locked gazes with her briefly before staring at some random spot just off to her side. “So... Uh... Why didn't you order that? I mean, you're here after all.”

“It's not exactly on the cheap side and I didn't want to take advantage of whoever it is who set all this up,” she admitted. “I know they probably wanted me to enjoy myself but... I just can't bring myself to do it. Especially not when it means blindly spending their money without a second thought.”

Her words caused him to look at her again and a hundred different emotions flashed across his face before he closed his eyes and let out a heavy sigh. He was sighing a lot today, it seemed. “...You really can't just make this easy for me, can you?”

“What do you-”

She hadn't even finished her question before he'd signalled to Ai who had just reappeared. “Excuse me, can I have one- no, two slices of triple chocolate cheesecake please?”

“No problem!” Ai called out with that same beaming smile and turned back around without missing a beat.

“Two?” Kara echoed in surprise. “I thought you weren't hungry? And can you really eat that much?”

“I'm not and I can't,” Mike replied simply. “But I know _you_ can. I ordered it for you.”

He'd said it so easily without a single hint that he might be teasing her the way everyone in their group liked to about her monstrous appetite that she found herself at a loss for words. “Mike... You really don't have to...”

“Come on, Kara,” he cajoled her with a faint smile. “You know I can afford it and we both know you're dying to have some. Please, just let me do this.”

The idea of having even a taste of that cake combined with the expression on his face melted her resistance to nothingness. “...All right. But you have to share it with me because if you don't, I'll feel like I'm taking advantage of you just like-”

“-your secret admirer.” He sighed for possibly the tenth time in the past hour as a waiter brought them their entire order. “Okay, I'll have some. But just a few bites. I don't want you to intentionally leave some for me, got it?”

“Fine by me.” Ridiculously happy that she had won this battle, she only waited long enough for both of them to pick up their forks before she began attacking the food in front of her with gusto.

_-HOLD UP, KARA DANVERS-_ , a voice at the back of her head which sounded strangely like Eve made itself known out of the blue just as she was in the process of swallowing her fifth forkful of triple chocolate cheesecake. _-DOESN'T THIS COUNT AS... A DATE?!-_

The forkful of triple chocolate cheesecake made a sudden and unexpected U-turn.

“Kara?!” Mike's panicked voice and the noise of a chair scraping across the floor barely registered thanks to the sound of her own choking filling her ears. “Kara, are you okay?!”

“I'm fine,” she tried to reassure him except her words took the form of wretched coughing that people would associate with suffering from the plague.

Regardless of whether he had managed to make sense of her hacking and wheezing or not, he didn't listen – which, to be fair, was unsurprising – and the next thing she was aware of was the sensation of his hand rubbing soothing circles on her back. If she wasn't busy trying not expel her lungs from her body, she was pretty sure she'd still be red-faced from the contact.

Eventually, however, her coughing subsided and she managed to convince him that it hadn't been anything more than some food going down the wrong pipe. “Seriously, Mike, I'm okay now,” she said, her voice still a little hoarse as she accepted a glass of water that Ai had brought. “You can stop looking at me like I need an ambulance.”

“I wasn't going to go _that_ far...” he muttered as he averted his gaze but still stole worried glances at her out of the corner of his eye. It was sweet but also annoying, especially when his concern caused her stomach which had only just calmed down to become unsettled again for a much more pleasant reason.

If she didn't get out of this situation right this second, she was probably going to blurt out how she felt about him and ruin everything for herself.

That realisation was enough to sober her up, and she refrained from doing anything that might encourage that fluttery feeling afterwards. He managed to pick up on it somehow, and as a result the rest of their little meal was tense and dotted with stilted conversation. In a way, it was exactly what she wanted... and yet she couldn't find any joy in it at all.

By the very end when all the food was gone and they were ready to leave, she was a giant ball of misery and had almost forgotten why she was at the café in the first place. (He was no better, but she was too distracted by her own self-inflicted suffering to notice.) It took Ai showing up with her seemingly permanent smile still firmly in place for Kara to even begin recalling the sequence of events that had led her here.

“How are you two doing? Did you enjoy the cake? I can get you another slice if you'd like,” Ai offered, clearly too polite to comment about how the plates and glasses on their table had been practically cleaned.

“Um, yes, it was very nice but we're good, thanks.” Mustering up something resembling a smile, Kara thought she could be forgiven for wishing she had just ignored the instructions in that Valentine card. If she had, then she wouldn't be sitting across from Mike this very second feeling like she'd somehow managed to compromise their friendship without doing anything more than asking him to help her figure out the identity of her secret admirer. “Can I, um... ”

“Have what you came for?” Ai's gaze briefly flicked over to land on Mike who ignored her before she focused on Kara again. “All right. Here.”

Considering the nature of the first clue, Kara had expected another coded message or some other kind of puzzle.

Instead, the item she received was a photograph. A rather blurry, out-of-focus one at that.

She blinked and looked back up at Ai. “...Is... um, I don't mean to be rude but was there a note that came with this?”

Ai shook her head. “No, that's all I was given to pass on to you. Does that mean you're leaving already?”

“Yeah. Thank you for everything.” Even with Ai's apparent interest in the guy she liked, Kara couldn't bring herself to dislike the perpetually pleasant waitress. Under normal circumstances, she was almost sure they would be pretty good friends.

“You're very welcome.” This time, Ai made no attempt to pretend she wasn't looking at Mike although she soon made it clear it was strictly business. “About the bill...”

Without lifting his head, he pulled out a few bills from his wallet and handed them over. “You can keep the change.”

One of Ai's eyebrows arched but she accepted the money without complaint. “All right then. Let me see the two of you out.”

(Because she went first while the other two stayed back, Kara missed an entire conversation conducted with nothing more than meaningful looks, animated hand gestures and weary sighs.)

“...So...” Kara started hesitantly with as nonchalant a tone as she could muster in a desperate attempt to improve the mood as they began walking away from the Daily Grind, “uh... Who do you think is behind all this?”

He shrugged and kept his gaze fixed in front of them. “I don't know.” Then he chanced a glance at her out of the corner of his eye. “Who do _you_ think it is?”

Seeing the perfect opportunity to test if he might be jealous, she pounced without a second thought. “James, maybe?”

Her suggestion stunned him so much he actually stopped in his tracks to stare at her. “ _Really?_ You want it to be _him_? The guy who you once said, and I quote, 'has an ego so big it makes Jupiter look like the size of a marble _at best_ '?”

“I didn't say I _want_ it to be him,” she countered hastily, cursing herself for picking that name first out of all the possible options. “It was just a wild guess. I mean, I kind of really liked him in junior year and he made me think he felt the same way but then I found out he was stringing me and Lucy along at the same time and... Anyway, long story short, I hate his guts now and he doesn't strike me as the kind of guy who'd put in this much effort to get me to like him again, if that makes sense.”

“I... I see.” Mike didn't look like he'd actually heard what she'd said. Instead, he looked a little... dazed? Crestfallen? It was hard to place his expression. “I... I didn't know he was your type.”

“It was just a stupid crush back when I didn't know what kind of jerk he was. It didn't mean anything,” she quickly tried to correct him. Oh god, she'd totally screwed it up _again_. Instead of potentially making him jealous, she'd probably just ruined whatever positive opinion he'd had of her that she hadn't already destroyed over the course of the past couple of hours. If he even remotely like-liked her before, she was sure she'd single-handedly guaranteed that was no longer the case.

“A-Anyway.” Kara held the photograph out for Mike to see when they stopped under a tree a short distance away from the café. The sun was already on its way to disappearing in the horizon but it was still warm enough that she welcomed whatever shade she could get. “What do you think about this?”

“Photographer's not very good.” He'd barely looked at it.

A worried frown creased her brow. Things between them had gone from great to _not_ great twice in a short amount of time – her fault in both instances, she was willing to admit as much – but she had hoped that focusing on the mystery at hand would remedy that even if just by a fraction.

Clearly she had been overly optimistic to the point of naïvety.

“I think it's blurry on purpose,” she suggested lightly, careful to avoid letting her true feelings from seeping into her voice. “It's obvious it was taken in a park which doesn't help much since the nearest one is pretty big but look; this patch of colour here has to be a flower bush and if you concentrate, this thing here could be a sign of some kind. Basically, there's just enough details that we could probably figure out where we're supposed to go next if we examine them a little closer and think hard enough.”

Something resembling a hum that practically screamed disinterest was his only response.

The jumbled mess of worry, anxiety and several other emotions she didn't quite feel like analysing sat like a rock in her stomach. “Mike, what's wrong?”

“Nothing.” His answer was as quick as it was hard to believe, and he still wouldn't look at either her or the photograph.

A pinprick of hurt registered in her chest. “Whatever it is that's bothering you, it's clearly not 'nothing'. Mike, please... Talk to me. We're...” she faltered, “We're friends, aren't we?”

If Kara hadn't been focusing all of her attention on him, she doubted she would have noticed the way his entire body had tensed for a second before it relaxed again although it came across as forced. “...Yeah. Yeah, we are.” His posture was still a little hunched as he finally looked up to meet her gaze, an unreadable expression on his face. “You still want to find out who sent you that Valentine that badly?”

“I...” She was still a little curious, yes, but this whole 'adventure' had been an excuse to spend some sort of alone time with him in the first place and now that that seemed to be falling apart... “We've come this far,” she finally said. “It would probably bother me for a long time if I give up right now.”

Impossibly, he seemed to deflate just that little bit more as he dropped his gaze to his feet but then he nodded and lifted his head again. “...All right. Just...” There seemed to be a question she couldn't decipher lurking in those blue-grey orbs. “I just hope we can be friends for a long time after this.”

Considering she was beyond confused by his mystifying words, it took her a while to formulate a response. “What are you even saying? Whoever it is who sent me that card, I don't see how they could possibly-”

“It was me,” he cut her off in a rush.

Her brain stalled as she stared uncomprehendingly at him. “...W-What?”

Then everything started to fall into place.

As the person who had been put in charge of collecting the Valentine's Day requests, it would have been easy enough for him to take one of the extra cards for himself and add her name to the delivery list without anyone else being the wiser.

Then there was the nature of the first clue; everyone in their group knew she loved solving puzzles as a way to unwind. (Alex called it weird, pointing out that something that made your brain work overtime wasn't exactly very relaxing but she didn't care.)

Choosing the Daily Grind as the place to get her next clue had also been a clue in and of itself; she and Eve had had their discussion about the café while the other four members of their group had been busy trying to annihilate each other in some four-player Playstation game at Mike's house. At the time, it had never occurred to her that he or anyone else could have overheard their conversation, much less paid it any attention, but that had clearly not been the case at all.

And last but not least, the next clue which was still in her hand: a photograph. Considering she'd seen his work up close, she knew for a fact that Mike was a pretty talented photographer... which also meant that he would know how to frame a shot so that it would have just barely enough details to turn it into a puzzle on its own.

In essence, the guy she'd recruited to help her solve this mystery was the same guy who'd created the mystery for her to solve in the first place.

All this while, the answer had literally been staring at her in her face but she'd been too busy hoping it was him and trying to create excuses to test the waters to realise it.

Suffice to say, she was having a hard time figuring out how to feel about everything.

Apparently misunderstanding her sudden and prolonged bout of silence, he turned away to stare down the road at nothing in particular with a pained expression. “I'm sorry,” he mumbled, an undercurrent of misery and resignation in his voice. “I know you were expecting... I don't know, really. It all kind of seemed like a good idea at the time but...” His hands curled into fists as he straightened and seemingly found the courage to look her in the eye again. “I like you, Kara. I've liked you for a long time. I just never found the courage to tell you because I kept thinking that it might ruin things between us and in our group especially if you didn't like me back. Then I thought about what might happen if you _did_ and we gave it a shot but it didn't work out and then everyone else would feel like they had to pick sides and it just seemed like the risks weren't worth it.”

Everything he was confessing right now was almost word for word the dilemma that had plagued her since she'd first realised how she felt about him. It was so surreal that she was starting to wonder if this was all a dream her brain had cooked up just to torment her.

“I'm sorry.”

The sorrowful apology dragged Kara back to reality whereupon she found Mike looking at her with the most heartbroken expression a human could possibly wear. “I... what?”

Somehow, he managed to make himself look so small – a rather impressive feat considering he was taller and bigger than her. “I know you don't feel the same way and I didn't mean to burden you with my feelings. I just... Things got this far and I had to tell you because you were going to find out anyway but let's just pretend this whole thing never happened.”

“W-Wait!” she called out desperately and grabbed his arm with her free hand as he made to leave. “Mike, stop!”

He did, but the look on his face when he turned to face her again made it clear he would rather be anywhere else. “Look, Kara, you don't have to let me down easy or anything like that-”

“I like you too,” she blurted out, cutting him off in the process.

This time, it was his turn to stare blankly at her. “...What?”

A giddy smile slowly but surely spread across her face. “I like you too, Mike Matthews. Everything you just said... I know exactly how you feel _because that's how I feel too_.”

“Wha... But...” Half-formed words and aborted sentences tumbled out of his mouth as he began imitating a landed fish. “Th-Then why were you so eager to find out who sent you that Valentine that you ended up asking me for help?!”

Her cheeks were starting to hurt from how wide her smile had gotten. “I wanted an excuse to spend time alone with you! And if you must know, I wanted it to be from _you_ in the first place!”

“B-But you looked like you wanted to run away or something back at the café!” he protested, clearly still unable to process everything she was saying. “How do you explain _that_?!”

She let out a borderline hysterical giggle at that. “That was because I was this close to just telling you how I felt right then and there and I got scared I was going to ruin everything!”

“You brought up _James_! _James of all people!_ ”

“ _I was trying to make you jealous, okay?!_ I'm not proud of it but that's the truth!”

Instead of becoming convinced of her mutual feelings, however, he looked as if he thought he might be dreaming or even that she was pulling some cruel prank on him. “This can't really be happening...” she heard him mumble under his breath as he slowly shook his head.

There were a few things anyone remotely acquainted with Kara Danvers knew about her and chief among them was that she was generally a shy person who disliked drawing attention to herself. Another thing they were also likely to know about her was that this shyness could evaporate very quickly and be replaced by a level of confidence that bordered on recklessness under the right circumstances.

Circumstances such as convincing the guy she liked that she really did in fact like him back.

A small voice at the back of her head quietly wondered which of them was more shocked at her boldness when she abruptly closed the distance between them and pressed her lips lightly against his.

When she pulled away and opened her eyes, she found him staring at her dumbly like someone had just broken a very large vase on his head. “...S-So...” Her voice sounded strange to her own ears, and that fact made her flush a little. “Do you believe me now?”

He blinked very slowly once, twice before he seemed to regain control of his mental faculties. “...I... guess so...?”

In light of their entire ridiculous and somewhat messed up situation, she decided to be generous and let his comment pass unchallenged. “Good, because I don't think I have it in me to try and convince you again considering we're not exactly in a very private space right now.”

Her poor attempt at concealing her rapidly growing nervousness – she'd just _kissed_ Mike Matthews! _In public!_ – caused him to fully recover from his shock and both of his eyebrows to disappear into his hairline. “Okay, was kissing me _that_ bad or are you actually trying to make it sound like it's _my_ fault you kissed me where everyone can see us?”

“W-Well, you wouldn't believe me so it kind of is your fault I... you know, did 'that'!” she stammered as her cheeks began to burn with even more intensity than before. “A-And I can't say if it was bad or not because it barely lasted for a second!”

To her mortification, a spark of something resembling mischief began dancing in his eyes. “So you're saying we should try that again to know for sure?”

“ _That's not what I said!_ B-Besides, we're still standing out in the open in case you haven't noticed!”

“Really? Because it didn't seem to be an issue when you were doing it. Unless of course you're saying that it's okay for you but not for me which doesn't sound fair at all.”

“Stop twisting my words! I'm not even implying that on any lev-”

The rest of her words died in her throat when he closed the distance between them this time and cupped her face in his hands with a gentleness that was at odds with the intensity of his gaze. “So you'd actually be fine with me kissing you right here and now?”

Heart suddenly racing and unable to look anywhere but into those captivating blue-grey orbs, she found she couldn't quite remember why she was protesting this quite so much. “I-I-I... um... y-y-yes...?”

Time slowed to a crawl as he brought his face closer to hers and her brain catalogued every single detail: the tips of his fingers threading through her hair, the warm and solid presence of his body, the sensation of his breath washing over her face, the thundering of her own heartbeat filling her ears...

Then their lips touched and suddenly that was all that registered.

At no point did it develop into anything more daring, and yet when they finally separated Kara was dizzy from lack of air and a whole host of emotions that were right now crowding inside her chest. “Um... wow.”

“Wow,” he echoed, just as breathless as her, before the corners of his lips began to curve. “Hi.”

“Hi,” she giggled, a matching silly grin forming on her face to mirror his. “So. What now?”

He pretended to give it some serious thought, which made her almost want to smack him. “Well, I suppose I haven't actually asked if you want to be my Valentine since you never finished the treasure hunt I set up for you...”

Another giggle slipped out of her. She didn't care. “Yes. The answer is yes. Although I have to admit that I'm kind of curious how many more stages I was supposed to go through before I actually got to that part.”

“We could go finish it and find out now...” he suggested teasingly.

It was a good idea... but... “Later,” she mumbled as she tilted her head upwards-

“ _GET A ROOM, YOU TWO!_ ”

The unexpected and very loud third voice burst their little bubble of bliss and caused both of them to jump nearly a foot in the air. When they turned to the source, they found none other than Ai waving at them from the entrance of the Daily Grind with a Cheshire grin plastered on her face.

“Oh god,” Kara whispered to herself, a blush scorching her cheeks as she remembered that they were still very much in a public space.

“She's never going to let me live this down...” Mike groaned as he dragged a hand down his face.

It was only then that Kara remembered how Ai had been behaving around Mike just now... which raised questions considering what she now knew. “Wait, you know her, don't you? She had the clue because she was doing you a favour!”

“Yeah, she's my cousin Hal's girlfriend,” he explained with a tired sigh. “The fact that you wanted to go to her current workplace was a happy coincidence.”

“I thought she was flirting with you,” she confessed rather embarrassedly. “I mean, the way she was behaving around you...”

His face scrunched up with a mixture of distaste and incredulity. “That was just Ai teasing me... and probably trying to get a reaction out of you to see if you liked me. She was... well, supposed to keep an eye on you while you were there and call me if anything went wrong or if she thought things... you know, wouldn't turn out well for me.”

“What are you two still standing there for?!” Ai hollered, too far away to hear their conversation. “Bring your new girlfriend back in here and celebrate, Mike, or I'm telling Hal and your parents!”

“Just hold on, okay?!” he yelled back with no small amount of exasperation before turning back to face Kara with a look of helplessness. “Do you want to-”

“You don't have to ask twice.” She bumped shoulders with him, the abrupt return of her shyness preventing her from doing anything bolder like grab his hand and entwine their fingers like she really wanted. “Besides, we've been invited and I don't want to cause trouble for you with someone who's probably going to be a future in-law.”

“Thanks, I guess.” They started slowly retracing their steps back to the Daily Grind before he spoke up again. “You know, we're going to have to tell the rest sometime soon.”

Kara thought about their friends and Eve in particular. “Something tells me they probably saw this coming long before either of us did but yeah, we should.”

“But not today.”

“Not today.”

Today was just theirs, Ai's unavoidable presence notwithstanding, and that was just how they liked it.

A pretty good Valentine's Day, they both agreed later as they made their way home.

* * *

Years later, he set up another elaborate treasure hunt for her... only what awaited her at the end this time was a small velvet box containing a stunning engagement ring.

Naturally, she neither hesitated nor needed any encouragement to say yes.

**Author's Note:**

> This got out of hand (like all my fics tend to do, it seems) but I hope you enjoyed the ride and spotted the Easter eggs. (Random trivia: 'Ai' is Japanese for 'love'.) Once again, Happy Day of the Valenteen to all of you and I'll hopefully see you again this month with an update!


End file.
